The only information as to Hannah's origins came from three sources....her death certificate and two application forms for her sons Fergus and Allan to attend the Royal Caledonian School in London.
Of course, the information provided on the application forms must be favoured over that given on Hannah's 1860 death certificate. The forms were filled in by either Hannah or her husband Robert Hughan, and so contain first hand information. The informant on Hannah's death certificate was one of her son-in-laws, Henry Edmiston, who is known to have made at least one other mistake on the certificate when he neglected to name one of Hannah's children.
Henry stated that Hannah Oakley was born at Ipswich, Suffolk, and that her parents were John Oakley, miller, and Hannah.
The school forms nominated Hannah's birthplace as St.Botolphs parish, Borough of Colchester, Essex.
Of course, both locations had to be investigated, so it was off to Suffolk first in an attempt to find any trace of a John and Hannah Oakley. Sure enough, there was one such couple...on April 24, 1786, John Oakley, widower of All Saints, Newmarket, widower, married Hannah Gardener, spinster, of St. James, Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk. No luck in finding a daughter named Hannah born around 1800, however.
Switching direction to neighbouring Essex, I concentrated my search around the old city of Colchester. Not only was St. Botolphs Parish, Colchester, recorded as Hannah's birthplace on the enrolment forms, but several Hughan children were also reportedly born there.
Hannah's date of birth was recorded as November 5 1801, on her simple headstone marking her grave in the cemetery at Brighton, Victoria. The baptism entry shown above, and taken from the parish register of St. Andrews, Greenstead, Essex, is from June 1802...totally within the reasonable period in which to baptise a baby as Hannah would have been seven months old.
The father is correct- but the mother is Elizabeth rather than the supposed 'Hannah' as taken from Hannah Hughan's death certificate. Greenstead was a tiny settlement just outside the boundary of Colchester, so the location was also acceptable.
I searched for a will for John Oakley of Essex, and whilst it did not appear in the usual PCC will index that I use, there was a will for a John Oakley, 1796, who was from Ardleigh, in Essex, and who was a MILLER!!!!! It was soon established that Ardleigh was a stone's throw from Greenstead, and that it was actually a part of the parish of St. Botolphs, Colchester.
From that moment, everything fell beautifully into place, and soon I had Hannah's father, John Oakley, as the owner of a fulling mill that he had inherited from his father, the John Oakley in the will...in fact, the John Oakley name went back as far as I could trace- Hannah's father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all named John Oakley or Ockly. Old wills proved to be a Godsend, providing clues to family relationships that I was not able to dig up anywhere else. I will be going into greater detail in subsequent blog entries, but very basically what I discovered about our Hannah's genealogy was as follows:
Her parents were John Oakley, a fulling miller and land owner from the Colchester district of Essex, and his second wife, a widow named Elizabeth Rebecca Frost. John's first wife was Susannah Wendon or Wynden, and soon after her death in January 1799 he married Elizabeth Frost. Elizabeth bore John two daughters, Hannah and Lucy, and I believe that she also had a family with her first husband. I have not been able to definitely pinpoint Elizabeth's maiden name and first husband, but I have my hunches and will present them later.
Above: Map of the district which was the home of Hannah Oakley's family for generations. Crockleford Mill, which was owned by the Oakley family, can be seen to be located in a detached part of St. Botolph's parish. St. Andrew's Church, Greenstead, is also visible.
